Check out the latest video by my brother and his girlfriend, Louis & Genevieve! It’s called Things About You and it makes you want to dance.

COMMENCE DANCIN’—>

BLAM! Good right? Now, go purchase this on iTunes.

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Today’s post will accomplish two things: First, I will try and get you to purchase Louis and Genevieve’s new album. Second, I will post video of my little brother that is labeled as a reason to buy his album but is really just a way for me to show you all HOW FRICKING CUTE HE WAS before he got all tall and masculine and could speak English properly. Let’s get started, shall we?

Guys, let me just say that my brother wasn’t always a musical genius. Case in point:

But as he’s grown older, he’s really become one:

You’ve already bought and enjoyed his first album. Now, he and Genevieve Artadi have released a self-produced album, which you can buy and enjoy here. The songs, all originals, are a healthy mix of funky, beautiful, wild, and delicate. As always, Louis and Genevieve have given us lyrics that, along with complexity, pack a healthy dose of humor.

Which Louis wasn’t very good at when he was a kid, either. Check out his rendition of “Orange You Glad I Didn’t Say Banana.”

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Here is a note my mom found while going through some old things.

Louis wrote this to me while my family was staying on Monterey on vacation. I don’t recall what was going on, but whatever it was, it was life-threatening and required that we take up smoking.

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Hey guys! Louis and Genevieve are at it again. This time, it’s a fantastically creative cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby.” I particularly like the headgear they’ve selected. Enjoy, everyone!

(It does not feature Ludacris, but it does feature editing by me.)

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Louis and Genevieve have done it again! This time it’s their cover of Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida.” Check it out! My favorite part is the very end!

(I edited. Again.)

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Louis and the extremely talented Genevieve Artadi (sorry ladies, they’re dating) recently did a cover of Britney Spears’ “3.” They shot it as a video song, meaning that as each instrument is recorded for the final audio track, the player is visually recorded, so that the resulting music video is an accurate representation of what you are hearing. No lip-syncing, air-guitar, or trickery of any kind.

They really do a great job of punching up this song. In the words of the YouTube User SeanDuncanMusic: “dude louis cole is so legit on the drums.” I agree, Sean. He is so legit. Enjoy:

(*I helped with the editing.)

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As I’m sure you know, my brother is a talented artist (see this page’s banner for evidence). I’m less talented, but still pretty amazing. I recently unearthed these two fine drawings that we did using Claris Works on my old, gray, rectangle of a Macintosh laptop. I say that “we” did them, because I cannot remember who is responsible for what. Ready to be wowed? I give you drawing #1- “Car Dude.”

Where we got the “car” part from will forever remain a mystery. As will the question of what the eff is happening with that man’s (?) hands. Are they knives? Or merely deformed, yet soft, fleshy growths? His legs look to be functional, as do his eyes and perpetually screaming hexagonal mouth. “But the man has no nose!” you are crying. “Doesn’t that make it difficult to breathe?” Good question! It would make it difficult to breathe, but the fact is the man has no body and therefore no lungs with which to breathe. Don’t cry for him- look at his luxuriant head of hair! He’s fine.

And now for Drawing #2- “Ninja Kitty.”

This was either drawn by Salvador Dali or my brother. The face makes an excellent argument for Dali, as this horrible creature appears to be melting, AND has a clock for an eye. I also like the square mouth that opens into a Tron-like world. Although, the Kitty’s single whisker is an argument for Louie’s work. The other reason I believe it may have been my brother (and not a surrealist painter who died in 1989) is the presence of a prominent butt. Yes, folks, I’m afraid those two circles are the Ninja Kitty’s buttocks. … Alright, this is definitely Louie’s creation. We’ll have him committed right away.

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‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all the through the house, my brother and I were trying decide what to do with this giant hunk of gingerbread dough that we’d made the previous night.

Originally the plan was to make a basic gingerbread house, but we soon realized that was stupid. “An aircraft carrier!” suggested Louis. “What about a gingerbread tall ship?” I asked. We laughed, and then each spent the next 25 seconds attempting to mentally construct sea-going gingerbread vessels. “Nah…We don’t have the capabilities,” was the general consensus. Then Louis had a stroke of genius: A head.

Yep. That was the answer. Here’s how we did it:

STEP 1: Select two bowls over which you will mold the dough into two halves of a head. (Pyrex works.)

STEP 2: Roll dough out, and drape over buttered Pyrex bowl; Trim edges.

STEP 3: Ask a master craftsman (in this case, my brother) to lovingly carve a face into the dough.

STEP 4: Stand back and admire the tortured face of your gingerbread person.

STEP 5: Bake the poor screaming fellow at 350º for 20 minutes.

STEP 6: Allow to cool before removing face from bowl.

STEP 7: When the thing still won’t come off the bowl, come up with an ill-conceived plane: Put it in the freezer!

STEP 8: Remove from freezer and attempt to remove face; Fail.

STEP 9: Cook back of head at 350º for 35 minutes. Feel free to insert a large, rolled-up piece of foil between the bowl and the dough to create neck fat.

STEP 10: Reform another face, but this time do it over some parchment paper, dummy!

STEP 11: Finally, successfully remove the pieces of head.

STEP 12: Glue ‘em together. We used our patented Caramel Bonding™ (take the fancy caramel from your mom’s pantry, melt it in the microwave, and stick in between the head parts.

STEP 13: If you’re feeling sad that your dad has to work on Christmas, you could always leave him a heart-warming message.

And that’s how you make a festive Christmas head! (You’re welcome.)

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Occasionally (as in, maybe 8 times a week), I will think of something from my past that will cause me to burst into uncontrollable laughter and disturb and confuse nearby friends and family.

Last night, I lost my mind at the thought of the following drawing, made by my brother, when he was many years younger:

I hadn’t recently seen this drawing or anything. I just remembered Louis’ rather intricate rendering of an Imperial AT-ST Chicken Walker from Star Wars, coupled with his “best guess” spelling of its name (I think you pronounce that “Chy-sin Wall-ser”) and couldn’t do anything but laugh for about 12 solid minutes. Seriously- I was making horrible gurgling noises and had tears rolling down my face as I tried to explain to an understandably alarmed Paul what was all of a sudden so funny.

It took awhile, but this picture explained everything.

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Louis, my excellent brother, has created a new masterpiece. It’s called You’ll Believe Me. Harmonically was heavily inspired by the Beach Boys and Chopin. Give it a listen- I know you’ll be blown away.

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I’m simultaneous guilty of both overwhelming pride and mind-altering jealousy. BRAVO, Louie!

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